The Book
Introduction What is it all good for? Scope of work Project History
Music theory in nutshell Harmony Chord notation used in the analyses The degrees of notes Chord functions Keys, Sharps and flats, neighbour keys Guitar friendly and piano-friendly keys Modulations, key changes Parallel key modulations Relative key modulations Neighbour key modulations Combined modulations Step-up/down modulations Unusual modulations Key-shifts Pivot Modulation Borrowed chords Cliche chord progressions Modes Ambigous harmony Rhythms Exercies Syncopations Shuffle beat Metrical modulations, metrical anomalies Compound meters Disorienting Rhythms Songforms General aesthatics of popular and rock music
Queen - The four of them as musicians Brian May Roger Taylor Freddie Mercury John Deacon
Songwriting Analyses
Smile
Ibex
"No Synth" era
Queen
Keep Yourself Alive
Doing All Right
Great King Rat
My Fairy King
Liar
The Night Comes Down
Modern Times Rock'n'roll
Son And Daughter
Jesus
Seven Seas Of Rhye
Silver Salmon
Hangman
Mad The Swine
Queen II
Procession
Father To Son
White Queen (As It Began)
Some Day One Day
The Loser In The End
Ogre Battle
The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
Nevermore
March Of The Black Queen
Funny How Love Is
Seven Seas Of Rhye
See What A Fool I've Been
Sheer Heart Attack
Brighton Rock
Killer Queen
Tenement Funster
Flick Of The Wrist
Lily Of The Valley
Now I'm Here
In The Lap Of The Gods
Stone Cold Crazy
Dear Friends
Misfire
Bring Back That Leroy Brown
She Makes Me
In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited
A Night At The Opera
Death On Two Legs
Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
I'm In Love With My Car
You're My Best Friend
Sweet Lady
'39
Seaside Rendezvous
The Prophet's Song
Love Of My Life
Good Company
Bohemian Rhapsody
God Save The Queen
A Day At The Races
Tie Your Mother Down
You Take My Breath Away
Long Away
The Millionaire Waltz
You And I
Somebody To Love
White Man
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
Drowse
Teo Torriate
News Of The World
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions
Sheer Heart Attack
All Dead All Dead
Spread Your Wings
Fight From The Inside
Get Down Make Love
Sleeping On The Sidewalk
Who Needs You
It's Late
My Melancholy Blues
Feelings
Jazz
Mustapha
Fat Bottomed Girls
Jealousy
Bicycle Race
If You Can't Beat Them
Let Me Entertain You
Dead On Time
In Only Seven Days
Dreamers Ball
Fun It
Leaving Home Ain't Easy
Don't Stop Me Now
More Of That Jazz
Live performances in the 70s
Modern-era Queen
The Game
Play The Game
Dragon Attack
Another One Bites The Dust
Need Your Loving Tonight
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Rock It (prime Jive)
Don't Try Suicide
Sail Away Sweet Sister
Coming Soon
Save Me
Human Body
Sandbox
Flash Gordon
Flash's Theme
In The Space Capsule
Ming's Theme
The Ring
Football Fight
In The Death Cell
Execution Of Flash
The Kiss
Arboria
Escape From The Swamp
Flash To The Rescue
Vultan's Theme
Battle Theme
The Wedding March
Marriage Of Dale And Ming
Flash's Theme Reprise
Crash Dive On Mingo City
The Hero
Hot Space
Staying Power
Dancer
Back Chat
Body Language
Action This Day
Put Out The Fire
Life Is Real
Calling All Girls
Las Palabras De Amor
Cool Cat
Under Pressure
Soul Brother
The Works
Radio Ga Ga
Tear It Up
It's A Hard Life
Man On The Prowl
Machines (or 'Back To Humans')
I Want To Break Free
Keep Passing The Open Windows
Hammer To Fall
Is This The World We Created?
I Go Crazy
A Kind Of Magic
One Vision
A Kind Of Magic
One Year Of Love
Pain Is So Close To Pleasure
Friends Will Be Friends
Who Wants To Live Forever
Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme)
Don't Lose Your Head
Princes Of The Universe
The Miracle
Party
Khashoggi's Ship
The Miracle
I Want It All
The Invisible Man
Breakthru
Rain Must Fall
Scandal
My Baby Does Me
Was It All Worth It
Hang On In There
Chinese Torture
Hijack My Heart
My Life Has Been Saved
Stealin'
New Life Is Born
Dog With A Bone
Guess We're Fallin Out
Innuendo
Innuendo
I'm Going Slightly Mad
Headlong
I Can't Live With You
Don't Try So Hard
Ride The Wild Wind
All God's People
These Are The Days Of Our Lives
Delilah
The Hitman
Bijou
The Show Must Go On
Lost Opportunity
Face It Alone
Self Made Man
My Secret Fantasy
Made In Heaven
It's A Beautiful Day
Made In Heaven
Let Me Live
Mother Love
My Life Has Been Saved
I Was Born To Love You
Heaven For Everyone
Too Much Love Will Kill You
You Don't Fool Me
A Winter's Tale
My Life Has Been Saved
It's A Beautiful Day (reprise)
No-One But You
Live performances in the 80s
Appendix Special instruments Special effects Special playing techniques Classical quotes Musical terms Index References
Flick Of The Wrist
Composer: Freddie Mercury
Meter: 4/4
Key: e-minor, a-minor/C-Major
Form:
Intro I-II | Verse | Bridge | Chorus I-II |
| Verse | Bridge | Chorus I - Solo |
| Verse | Bridge'| Chorus II
This song is not a usual rock song. Each verse, bridge and especially the chorus has different character. It has segued intro from "Tenement Funster and segued outro toward "Lilly Of The Valley". The songform shows three cycles with the "usual" (for Queen standard) changes and variants that are located at the second half of the cycles.
The from the previous track inherited key is e-minor/G-Major, and most of the song also seems to be in e-minor, while other sections dont have a strong tonal center.
A characteristic part of the arrangement is the lead guitar fills that sound like played backwards.
Intro
The opening subsection has a pseudo-classical piano work. It has three phrases where the second and third are transposed up (by fourth) variant of the first: A A4' A4'. The harmony is built upon a descending chromatic double-line cliche (see reversed in "... Leroy Brown") combined with 3+3+2 syncopated accents in m.1-2 of each phrase. The most interesting fragment is in m.4 with some scalar motions built in. Bass lead guitar and drums enter in the third phrase.
| G* | * | * | G *7 |
/------------ 2x---------------\
| C(9)* | * | * | C F/C C |
The second susbection with its static harmony is close variant of the cycle closing phrase of the choruses.
| Am | Dm/A Am | Am | Dm/A Am |
| iv | iv/iviv | iv |iv/iv iv |
Verse
The phrasing of the 8 measure verse is 4+4, AA' harmony wise, the second phrase is instrumental. The lead guitar here is not melodic enough to be threated as a proper guitar solo. The mode of the verse (especially the lead guitar work) sounds to be B phrygian. Retrospectively the whole section can be interpreted as being centered around the dominant chord of the soon to be established e-minor key. Mainly the same harmonic gambit was used in the intro of "The March Of The Black Queen". The absence of the tonic is very unusual for verses, more usual for the bridges.
We dont have chordal backing just single note figures roughly followed by the lead vocals sung in octaves. The functional harmony analysis is based on dyades outlined by the tune.
e:
| D#1 B1... | E1 B1... | D#1 B1... | A1 B1... |
| "V" | "i" | "V" | "iv" |
| D#1 B1... | E1 B1... | F#1 B1... | A1 B1... |
| "V" | "i" | "V" | "iv" |
Bridge
The 9 measure bridge has two phrases: 4+5 AA'. This is still square phrasing with expanded last chord and a crescendo of low toms and also a special percussive sound.
| Em | D | Em | D |
| i | VII | i | VII |
| Em | D | A5 | B5 | - |
| i | VII | i | VII | - |
There is one three part vocal harmony block in m4 that is rhythmically and lyrically altered in the last cycle.
The last bridge is altered more from m7. While the lead vocal repeats the first phrase this time without varying it, there is an ascending harmony very reminiscent of those polirhythmic vocal harmonies in "...Black Queen" (again).
m7
...| Em | D* | - |
...| i | VII | - |
Chorus
The chorus consists of two subsection the first if which is only two measures long. The second cycle omits the second, the third cycle the first subsection.
The first subsection consists of two one measure phrases. The related vocal phrases are centered before the downbeat of the harmonic phrases.
| Em |
| i |
| B |
| V |
The second subsection starts with a diatonic chain of fifths suggestion a modulation to C-major.
m3
| Am7 | D | G(6>7)| C G/B|
e: iv | VII | III | VI |
C: | V/V | V | I |
But from m.6 the harmony is centered to Am7 chord. That added seventh works against the chord being interpreted as the tonic.
The next two vocal phrases consist of a harmonized and a solo lead vocal subphrase respectively.
| Am7 | A* |
| vi | - |
| Am7 | A* |
| vi | - |
| Am7 | Am7 D5/A Am7 |
| vi | vi ii vi |
The next phrase is built around a the antidirectional counterpoint between the chromatic ascending bass and descending top voice.
| C B | A B | - | top voice
| G G | F# G | A | inner voice
| E E | D E | - | inner voice
| C C# | D E | - | low voice and bass/guitar
| C C#halfdim| D Em | Esus4 | chords
C I | V/V iii | - |
e: VI |VII i | - |
The last harmonic phrase reprises the harmony closing of the intro. The vocal phrase end on the downbeat of the harmonic phrase. In the last cycle this vocal phrase closes the song segued to Lily Of The Valley starting in a-minor. Backwards played guitar is added that overlaps the transition to the verse.
| A5 | - | - | - |
Solo
The solo has simple harmony and relatively non-melodic lead melody. The first four harmonic phrases are centered around G-chord.
m1
/----- 3x ------\
| G5 |(G5) C | G5 | - |
| III | VI | III | - |
In the next three phrases the rhythm guitars are repeating an ascending e-minor blues scale with off-beat rhythms.
m9
/----- 3x ------\
| E1* | - |
| 1st | - |
The next three phrases reprise the chromatic ascending motif of the end of the chorus, fully executed for only the third time with a half measure shortening. This is a tad more melodic part of the guitar solo closing with some crazy false bent notes in m21.
m15
/------- 3x------\
| C1 C#1 | D1 | Em | (E1) |
| 6th | 7th | i | |